Interview – PHFat

Leese got to interview PHFat. Their recent album launch for their first full length studio album ‘Happiness Machines’ at !Arcade Empire, on the 27th of July, had the DYD team getting down with their bad selves. Since then they’ve gone from a electronic rap trio to duo with Disco leaving to pursue his own solo career. We still expect big, bassy things from PHFat and it’s no surprise that the entire DYD crew (especially the ladies) are huge fans. You can catch them at Grietfest 2013, click here for more details.

DYD: How would you describe one of your live performances to Cousin It from The Addams Family?PHFat: Fun for about half of the family.

DYD: We’ve seen you at !Arcade Empire for the Pretoria leg of your Happiness Machines album launch tour. So far, where have you had your best night on this tour?PHFat: Uhm… In terms of the fun I had on the night probably at Arcade Empire. That was so flipping rad. I lost it when Fuzigish was playing. They are so rad. Then our show was just fucking rowdy. I loved it. Cape Town was just as cool but in a completely different way.

DYD: You’re also playing at Grietfest 2013 as part of your tour. How do you guys prepare for big shows like Grietfest? And what can we expect that will top last year’s performance?PHFat: So for Grietfest this year it is really different because it is our first big show that we are playing without Disco in like 3 or 4 years. We are busy working with Mr Sakitumi to put together the best damn show that we can. In terms of topping last year’s performance I think our new tracks are straight up better than what we had last year. I am really excited about that show.

DYD: How would you describe your album, Happiness Machines? And on that note who did you collaborate with on the album and is it any different from your first two digital releases?PHFat: Our only colab on that album was with Desert_Head. For the track Church. Colabs can be strange. They have to be organic if they work well and this colab was mad organic. We hung out for the day and accidentally made a track. It was flipping ill. Happiness Machines is my favourite work of ours by far.

DYD: Why on earth do you release your albums for free? Are you trying to stop your music from being pirated with a super cool donation model?PHFat: It’s the future now. If you sell music then people will probably just copy it and steal it. We figured we would just get rid of one step and legitimize the process of sharing. It has worked out very well for us so far. Though we’ve made fuckall in album sales.

DYD: What brought the two of you together in the first place?PHFat: The universe.

DYD: What’s your biggest gripe with the South African music scene and what advice would you give to up and coming musos?PHFat: My biggest gripe with the industry is people who have gripes with the industry. The only difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people work hard. And mostly don’t have terrible luck. But the harder they work the less likely they are to have terrible luck it seams. Unless they get like… I dunno… struck by lightening.

DYD: Indulge us, any drama behind the scenes that we don’t get to see and have any of you guys ever had a crazy fan experience?PHFat: There is tons of drama and all sorts of crazy shit that happens that most people would never believe. Everyone has a façade. Don’t be too fooled by what you see on stage and what you hear in recordings. That shit is all carefully constructed and a lot of work goes into making everyone’s life look peachy. Your life is probably as awesome as it needs to be.

DYD: The people want to know, which of you are single?PHFat: Hmmm… You would think that the answer to this would be a dichotomous variable. You’ll have to ask us in person.